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Georgina Beyer, a transsexual lawmaker in New Zealand, resigned mid-term last week from her post in parliament. She was vague about her reasons for stepping down.
(Photo courtesy of New Zealand Parliament)
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A politician claiming to be the world’s first transsexual elected to a national Parliament bowed out of New Zealand’s House of Representatives last week, saying her biggest achievement was winning her conservative rural seat in 1999. Georgina Beyer said she started life as a boy named George before becoming a male prostitute, having a sex change operation and continuing to work, as a female prostitute. “The first transsexual in the world to be elected to a Parliament ... it was inspirational in itself,” center-left Labour Party lawmaker Beyer said. She did not give a specific reason for stepping down before her term ends in 2008, but hinted she might contest the mayoral election in the capital, Wellington, later in 2007. “I have been pleased and proud to be a positive participant in our society. I am so glad that I have been able to redeem my more lurid past and practice proper rights of being a citizen of this country,” she said.
Chinese AIDS activist says
gov’t will allow her to visit U.S.
BEIJING (AP) — An elderly Chinese doctor who embarrassed the government by exposing blood-selling schemes that infected thousands with HIV said last week that communist authorities had relented and will allow her to travel to an awards ceremony in the United States. The change comes after police in central Henan province had patrolled outside the home of Gao Yaojie, 80, for the last two weeks, preventing her from leaving and stopping everyone except close relatives from visiting. “This morning I went downstairs but I did not see any police,” said Gao, who added she did not know why the government had changed its mind. Gao is to be honored next month by Vital Voices Global Partnership. She had apparently been detained by authorities at her home to prevent her from applying for a U.S. visa. But Gao said she now expects to pick up the visa and leave for the U.S. on Sunday.
Gay couples celebrate
civil unions in Mexico
MEXICO CITY (AP) — More than 100 Mexican gay couples celebrated their registrations for civil unions last week in the capital city’s central plaza, wearing suits and wedding dresses and throwing rice in a scene akin to a mass engagement party. The couples noted their intent with the non-government Citizens Civil Union Network ahead of a law allowing gay couples to register their unions and gain many of the rights of married couples. Mexico City, a semi-independent capital zone that has some of the same powers as state legislatures, approved the law in November. It takes effect March 16. Mexico’s northern state of Coahuila, bordering Texas, has already enacted a similar law.
Moscow official stresses
city will not allow gay parade
MOSCOW (AP) — Moscow will not allow a gay rights parade this spring, a senior city official said last week, and he equated homosexuality with alcoholism, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. The city’s mayor had previously said the event would not be held. “There is the hard line of the city authorities and the position of our main faith, the Russian Orthodox Church ... of the inadmissibility of such an event in Moscow,” RIA-Novosti quoted the head of the city’s international relations department, Georgy Muradov, as saying. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and city authorities barred gay rights activists from staging a parade last year, citing the threat of violence, but activists ignored the ban and were attacked by right-wing protesters and detained by police. Last month, Luzhkov vowed never to allow a gay rights parade, calling such events “satanic.” Russian gay activists pledged to hold a march in May.
Nigerian lawmakers seek
to ban all gay expression
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s National Assembly held public hearings last week on a bill to ban gay marriage and criminalize virtually all forms of gay expression in Nigeria, with lawmakers hoping for a vote before April general elections. The bill lays down penalties of up to five years for anyone watching or reading material deemed to be pro-gay either in public or in their own homes, and forbids meetings between two gay people. In part, the proposed bill reads: “Any person who is involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies and organizations, sustenance, procession or meetings, publicity and public show of ...
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